COVER STORY: AI-Opportunity for the Evolution of Human Beings
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a hot topic today all over the world. Our July/August 2016 issue highlights the potential of AI as a key to realizing a knowledge-based society. Overall, we see AI as an opportunity for growth and prosperity and eventually the evolution of human civilization, and not as a risk to human beings.

COVER STORY: Challenges & Opportunities for G7 Leaders
Analysis of the Global Political Economy for Leaders at the Ise-Shima Summit
On May 26 and 27, G7 leaders will meet in Ise-Shima, a scenic coastal resort in western Japan. The theme of the meeting is how to restore the global economy from the continuing recession in the wake of the Lehman Shock in 2008 and mitigate increasing geopolitical risks. Our May/June issue highlights these issues of interest for the G7 leaders, all related to the global governance topics we covered in Nov./Dec. 2010.

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COVER STORY: Structural Reform of Local Economies
Policies to Enhance Japan's Growth Potential
Japan's local economies offer numerous good business opportunities. There are many business sectors, in particular tertiary sectors, in the Japanese regions that are currently suffering from extremely low productivity. But it would be easy to enhance productivity in these sectors with only a little effort, since most of them simply lack skillful business management. With the transfer of some human management resources from Tokyo to these local areas, these sectors would show a vastly improved business performance and enable local economies to achieve higher productivity and wealth.

COVER STORY: Where is Japanese Management Heading - Evolution or Revolution?
Assessment of Reform of Corporate Governance & Diversity Management
Japanese management, with lifetime employment and a seniority-based salary and promotion system as its core elements, has long been considered central to the success of Japanese business. The cohesiveness of a company developed by such simple management techniques was an engine in enhancing the competitiveness of Japanese companies in the process of catching up with global leaders until about the 1980s. In this process, vitality was more important than creativity, and such cohesiveness helped to create vitality. People around the world became interested in Japanese management techniques as the success story of the Japanese economy spread.

But now that the Japanese economy has matured and no longer needs to catch up with any other, Japanese businesses will need innovation and creativity instead of cohesiveness. They will need to develop on their own more new ideas and strategies to maintain their competitiveness, since they don't have any models to catch up with. New ideas and strategies often come from competition rather than collaboration, when you are pressed to create a distinction from your rivals by a new strategy or a new product in a serious competition for profits. The cohesiveness of a company may no longer be a primary necessity to win the competition for creativity. Rather, diversity will be a key to the creation of new ideas and thus to business success. Japanese companies now face the need to introduce diversity among the members of their management team, such as women and foreigners.

Corporate governance reform in Japan, which is now drawing international attention, would enable a Japanese company to enage in ROE-oriented competition which would lead to greater innovation. Diversity management and corporate governance reform are both recommended and promoted by "Abenomics". So traditional Japanese management now has to tackle these challenges and change by itself. This transformation process of Japanese management, whether it be called evolution or revolution, will draw international attention because conventional Japanese management systems once provoked discussions about the future of global business itself. Corporate governance reform in Japan, and diversity management, two business reforms advocated by Abenomics, are the core factors of this transformation process.